I often listen to Desert Island Discs on Radio 4, and wish there was a Desert Island Books as well – where you pick the eight or nine books you'd take to a desert island.
What would yours be?
Mine:
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. Even after 200 years it hasn't been bettered. The Lizzie/D'Arcy will they won't they romance is just so believable, and so touching. Lizzie Bennett is such a vivid and well-drawn character as well – so real.
Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights. Another novel that has stood the test of time. Again, such vivid and memorable characters, and such magnetic power.
Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything. I'm a complete div when it comes to science, which frustrates me, as the older I get the more interesting science seems. Bryson's book is a fantastic overview.
P G Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves. I love Wodehouse. And I love him for the same reasons as everyone else: funny, beautiful language, rich characters, etc. He created a timeless world, a kind of Eden where no one is cruel, no one is in pain, no one is unhappy, no one has cancer, etc. I read Wodehouse out loud when I'm on my own – it's better than Prozac.
Collected Sherlock Holmes. But I'd want it on audiobook, read by Stephen Fry.
David Copperfield. For me, it's THE novel: beautiful, sad, wise. It's like Dickens has crammed the whole of life into one book.
Patrick Leigh Fermor: A Time of Gifts. Fermor was a travel writer, and this is his account of a journey by foot across pre-war Europe. He's wonderful. One of those people who is fascinated by everyone and everything they encounter. And he always sees the best. He's an incredibly joyful, cheerful writer as well.
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Grey. The best dialogue ever written. As a teenager, I wanted to live in Wilde's world and talk like those late 19th-century Oxford aesthetes. (I also wanted their money and luxurious lives.) Like P G Wodehouse, he created a world you can escape into.
Frances Spalding: The Bloomsbury Group. I've always been fascinated by Woolf and the Bloomsbury gang. Spalding brings their world alive.
I'm not sure about the rest. I'd be tempted to take a Hardy novel, and possibly Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour novels. Or maybe Betjeman's poems. Oh, and some of Bertrand Russell's essays (not the heavy philosophical stuff, just the popular essays on happiness, how to live, etc – wonderful writer). And maybe Orwell's essays too.
Before anyone has a go at me, yes I'm aware all the writers (except Bryson) are British. But I'm British, so I don't see why I should apologize. It's perfectly natural to gravitate towards writers from your own culture/nation.